Jul
14
Tuonela Productions released a press release of their coming line up for the autumn 2009 and it looks very impressive. Three brand new games from Finnish designers; Modern Society, Soul Hunters and Inquisition. These games make already interesting year of games even more interesting.
I have not been able to get any additional information about the games but it seems like they all are targeted for families and are in a typical eurogame game length range (approx. 60 minutes). I hope I’m able to give you more information shotrly.
In the mean time you can read and learn more abuot the game from the Tuonela Productions blog.
Mar
30
Prototype session: Epäillyt
Filed Under Epäillyt, General, News | Leave a Comment
It’s rare to have an opportunity to test Finnish games that will come out in Finland. Kimmo Sorsamo is a designer who has done it once before with Maximus which unfortunately did not make into stores after it was nominated as a finalist in the Finnish Game of the Year 2008. This time game is published by Kimmo himself in a cooperation with Competo so there should not be any problems getting the game out.
Epäillyt is a game which presents Helsinki in 1930ies and a murder mystery that players try to solve. Deduction with an action mechanic is the heart of the game, game is for 2-4 players, lasts approx. 60 minutes and is targeted for families. Game is also solely targeted for Finnish consumers which means that it is not available in English; game itself is mostly language independent so if some geek is willing to translate the rules there should not be problems to play the game even outside Finland.
Epäillyt cover art
The first impression of the game was a surprise; I have not seen such a cool cover art in a game probably ever before. Obviously I’m not objective here since I live in Helsinki and the cover presents snowy Helsinki in the 30ies but nevertheless designer of the art has done a great job. Gameboard and rulebook are also beautiful and historically accurate which adds spice to the game; it’s superb to learn local history from a board game.
Epäillyt game board
Gameplay is rather simple: players collect clues as a form of character tokens from the gameboard with three detectives. On player’s turn he/she can introduce new detective on the board (there’s three for each player) or move already existing detective. Moving is done by using action tiles (1,2,3,4) which show how many steps player can move the detective. Detective can also be moved with a tram and there’s also a possibility to gather information from other players on player’s turn. The aim of the game is to be the first to solve the identity of the three characters who have committed the murder.
Epäillyt character tile
Epäillyt is a solid family game because rules are not overly complex, game can be playerd in an hour and game is very thematic. Game is not a gamers’ game but our group of three, who all have played a solid number different games, did still enjoy the game so much that we played it twice. I’m sure this game has potential in the family game segment and I’m sure it’s going to succeed in the Game of the Year competition this year. There’s absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t also attract a new audience to play board games in Finland because of the nature of the game and gorgeous designand art.
On a personal level it’s also great to see Competo publishing Finnish board game. They have done such an awsome work with exporting quality games to Finland that it’s huge that they have began using their skills also in the Finnish board game field. We need more Finnish game first for the Finnish market and then outside and I hope this is a sign for growing activity to reach this goal.
Epäillyt should be in stores sometime during Autumn and I can’t wait to see the final version of the game.
Mar
1
Monopoly in the limelight during weekend
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This was a great weekend from the gaming point of view. I had friends at my place on Friday and today I attended the weekly game club at the local library. I also got a few new games (Thief of Baghdad, Diamant and Auf der Pirsch) from the Lautapelit.fi sale in my collection which was great since the prices of the games were more than decent.
The biggest event of the weekend was unarguable the Finnish Monopoly Championship Finals that were held in Stockmans at the centre of Helsinki. Finnish Boardgame Society was involved in the tournament since the referees of the tournament were members of the Society and I had done quite a lot of work trying to persuade people to get involved.
Image by Boardgaming Finland
Event itself didn’t have overly large space and it was a bit behind the corner but players seemed to be enthusiastic (can’t blame then because winner goes Las Vegas) and there was a real atmosphere of competition. I haven’t yet heard any news from the tournament and I don’t actually know who won but I’m sure that there is a super happy winner somewhere in Finland at the moment.
I haven’t tried the new Monopoly version with the speed die which should make the game more playable and what I have heard it really does so. Still I somehow feel that I’ll concentrate in some other games and rely having fond memories of the game from my childhood.
Image by Boardgaming Finland
Nov
26
Competo games from Makuuni
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Competo released a press release that they have began a co-operation with Makuuni. Makuuni is one of the biggest DVD rental chains in Finland and they have stores all over Finland. Press release didn’t state which Competo games will be sold through Makuuni but I’ll guess it’ll be the lighter and more family friendly side of their cataloque.
You can soon find Competo games at least in these stores:
Itäkeskus, Karhupuisto, Munkkiniemi, Sturenkatu (Helsinki), Myyrmäki, Martinlaakso (Vantaa), It. Pitkäkatu, Kaskenkatu (Turku), Satakunnankatu, Tammela, Sammonkatu, Hervanta, Tesoma (Tampere), Kaukajärvi, Nokia, Vapaudenkatu (Lahti), Hollola, Torikatu (Oulu), Vaasa ja Seinäjoki.
I have to say that it would be cool to see Wits and Wagers among the hot new DVDs but lets see how extensively we’ll going to see Competo in the Makuuni stores in the future.
Sep
25
Competo releases Keltis for the Nordic Countries
Filed Under General, Keltis, News | 2 Comments
Competo releases this years Spiel des Jahres winner Keltis by Reiner Knizia for board game markest in the Nordic Countries. Keltis is described to be Lost Cities in a board game form and it has received relatively positive reviews world wide. Game should be out before Christmas ’08.
On a more personal note I have to say that I really anticipate Keltis. Usually Spiel des Jahres winners are good games for families or non-gamers and I tend to have people from both categories in my regular gaming group. What I’ve also heard is that Keltis fixes the slight problem of adding up all the points from the expeditions which is irritating in Lost Cities (this is done by using a track on the game board). I’ll add this to the already quite long list of games which I really should try quickly.
Sep
4
Vote games in Finnish Players’ Picks 2008!
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Mikko Saari has again set up gaming awards for the year 2008 or Finnish Players’ Picks 2008 as they are also called. The idea of the awards is that Finnish gamers pick the best games they have played during the last year (from Oct 2007 to Aug Sep 2008) and list them. The most popular (the game which receives the most votes) game is the winner.
Mikko has been running the awards since 2002 and there’s interesting changes which have occured during the history of the award. The fact that Puerto Rico has been very popular is no surprise but in the recent years Carcassone, Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan have lost their top three positions and more of a gamers games have found their way on the top. Last year TOP 3 was Puerto Rico, Powergrid and Thurn und Taxis.
There seems to be a gaming culture developing with a quick analysis of the results and partly this is true – Finnish retailers and board game stores have become more active in bringing games to Finland and releasing them in Finnish. Companies as Lautapelit.fi and Competo have done a good job and the fruits of this developement can be seen in the results. People know and play a larger variety of games which is great for the gaming culture. On the other hand the statistics are distorted by the fact that Mikko’s award is not generally known in Finland and thus the heavier games are over represented.
Anyways, it is easy to predict that there will be changes in the TOP 3 this year too. You don’t have to be a genious to see that Agricola is going to skyrocket up in the TOP 3 and probably it will be the winner. Race for the Galaxy is also a certain TOP 5 game and has a good chance of being one of the three most popular games. Puerto Rico is definitely high again and some permanent performers, as Ticket to Ride, are for sure near the top. I’ll say that the black horse in the race is Galaxy Trucker although it’s not so widely played that it would be higher than in the TOP 10.
You can pick your favorite games for the year 2008 during September. Results come out early October and I’m exited to find out how it turns out this year.
Aug
29
Finnish Games of the Year 2008
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Finnish Toy Association picked the finalists and winners of the Game of the Year in three categories: children, family and adults. There were plenty of good games participating and these games made it to the end:
Children’s Category
* Winner : Eläinpyramidi (Tavella)
* Finalist: Koko perhe näyttelee (Tactic)
* Finalist: Muumien sanasirkus (Egmont)
Comment: I have to admit that I have not playerd any of these games. This is going to change though because I’m planning on a podcast on all the finalists and have gotten hold on most of the games.
Family Category
* Winner : Bandu (Bausack) (Competo)
* Finalist: Oregon (Lautapelit.fi)
* Finalist: Qwirkle (Competo)
Comment: We had a great selection this year in this category and some good games were left out of the final three. Bandu is a game for the whole family and is fun with anyone. Oregon is a solid game as is Qwirkle but they might have done better in the adult category because they are more complex than Bandu.
Adult’s Category
* Winner: Modern Art (Lautapelit.fi)
* Finalist: Taidolla ja Tuurilla (Wits and Wagers) (Competo)
* Finalist: Maximus (Gambit Games)
Comment: I was pretty sure that Taidolla tai Tuurilla would have won because it’s a game that is fun with gamers and non-gamers. Usually these games have done best in the competition. But this year Modern Art took the win and there’s good reasons for that: the game is excellent and Lautapelit.fi produced a Finnish version out of the game with unic graphic design. I was also pleased that Gambit Games and Maximus got among the finalists. Maximus is a solid game and a example of the possibility to develop and produce a Finnish board game in every sense.
Overall I must say that I’m very pleased with these results. It’s great to have good games winning the prizes than bad and these are games which I can recommend to anybody.
Jul
14
I visited Lautapelit.fi store today and met owner Toni who showed me ther new release Wings of War Deluxe Set. I had not heard even any rumors of Finnish release of this game and I was pleasently suprised by the news. Wings of War is a light miniature war game where players control planes from World War 1 era and battle against each other until death. Maneuvering is done with cards and there are a lot of diffirent choises how to fly the plane and game should be full of straight forward action but, although it has a war theme, it is not deep in strategy.
Finnish edition is Deluxe Set which comes with 4 pre painted miniatures which look awsome and should keep boys occupied for a longer while. Deluxe Set is for 2-4 players but there’s a wide variety of miniatures available with which you can expand the amount of players easily. The man behind the translation is Mikko Saari which means that rules should be translated well.
Jun
28
Competo releases Settlers expansions in Finnish
Filed Under Cities and Knights of Catan, News, Seafarers of Catan, Settlers of Catan | Leave a Comment
Information was given to me that Competo will release Seafarers [ BGG] and Cities and Knights [ BGG] expansions for Settlers of Catan [ BGG] in Finnish. These are a nice addition to a already sizable amount of games of the Catan family in Finnish.
I’ve played only the Seafarers expansion and like it a lot. It brings variation to the original game and brings an element of expedition to the game. Cities and Knights is also a solid expansion although I haven’t had chance to try it. Hopefully the new realease is going to end up on a table someday and I can give you my comments on it.
Jun
19
Tuonela Production’s The Club out in the autumn
Filed Under News, The Club | 2 Comments
I got information from Jussi Autio from Tuonela Productions which reveals that company’s new board game The Club is coming out sometime during next autumn. The Club is a game for 2-4 players that are age of 13+ and the game lasts 45-60 minutes. What this means is that game is targeted more for those who are in the gaming hobby that for families and non-gamers. FRED Distribution distributes the game for the international market and The Club should be available in Spiel 2008. Tuonela Productions has also plans to make a computer game out of The Club.
I also had an oppurtunity to see some of the graphics in the game and I was impressed – The Club looks very cool. The gameplay of The Club looks also interesting. In the game players are trying to form couples in a bar (The Club). The Club is a tile laying game and tiles are layed on the table similarly as in The aMAZEing Labyrinth; tiles are pushed to the board from the sides of the board thus resulting some tiles to drop off the board. Every tile is a character, every character has four abilities and a secret ability and points are awarded to players creating couples by the amount of similar abilities of the two characters. There are three types of special tiles (Bouncer, Celebrity and Bully) with special abilities that stir up the game a bit.
The most hilarious aspect of the game seems to be the special abilities which score points in the end for the players. A character might have a large mojo which ,under certain circumstances, gives player additional points or character might have beautiful roommate which means triple action after the night at the bar and thus more points. Character can also have a nasty desease or he/she can be engaged and that’s not a good thing after you have left the bar together.
As I’ve said before I’m really waiting for The Club. It’s definitely different from the mainstream Eurogames in its theme. There’s probably those who get offended by the theme and straightforward approach of the game but I believe that atleast in Finland it doesn’t really matter. We are not narrow-minded despite the fact that we usually seem to be rather quiet and introvert. It’s also interesting to see Finnish game in the international board game market and observe how it succeedes amid the tough competition and growing amount of games coming out each year.
PS. If you are interested enough here are the rules for The Club for you to read
PSS. And here you can find the score sheet for the game which is a concrete part of the game.